3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) is the volumetric capture format that took over from NeRFs. You film a place with your phone, train a .ply of millions of fuzzy coloured “splats,” and get a photoreal 3D scene you can fly a camera through. In 2026 there are TouchDesigner renderers that play these splats live, which means you can take the cafe where you had your first date and turn it into a slow, dreamy flythrough.
Before You Start
- Capture and train a splat first. The easy path is a phone app like Polycam or Luma, or the desktop trainer Postshot, exporting a
.ply.- Grab a TD splat renderer. Community options include the TD Gaussian Splatting GLSL components on GitHub and Olib. Search “gaussian splatting” on Olib.
1. Capture a Good Splat
The render quality is decided here, not in TouchDesigner.
- Film slowly, in a full circle around your subject, keeping it centred.
- Cover multiple heights (low, eye level, high). More angles means fewer holes.
- Avoid moving objects, reflections, and changing light.
- Train, then export the
.ply. Expect 500k to 3 million splats.
Splat count vs. performance
Every splat is sorted and blended each frame. A 1 million splat scene runs comfortably on a mid GPU; 3 million may need a strong card. Decimate in the trainer if it stutters.
2. Load It in TouchDesigner
- Drop the splat renderer
.toxinto your project. - Point its file parameter at your
.ply. - The splats load as a point cloud with per-point colour, scale, rotation, and opacity. The renderer handles the depth sorting and elliptical blending in GLSL.
3. Fly the Camera
This is where it becomes cinematic.
- Add a Camera COMP.
- Animate its position with an LFO CHOP or a hand-keyed Animation COMP for a slow orbit or push-in.
- Use a long, gentle move. Splats reward slow camera work; fast moves reveal the fuzz.
4. Make It a Keepsake
- Add subtle depth of field (defocus by distance) so the foreground stays sharp and the background melts.
- Grade it warm with an HSV Adjust or Lookup TOP.
- Render the flythrough to a movie with Movie File Out TOP and you have a gift you can text.
Troubleshooting
- “The splats look like a fog of blobs.” - Camera is too close or the capture was sparse. Pull back, and recapture with more angles.
- “Performance tanks.” - Too many splats. Decimate in the trainer, or cull splats outside the camera frustum if the renderer supports it.
- “Colours look washed out.” - Many renderers expect linear colour. Check whether the component wants an sRGB-to-linear step, and grade at the end.
Next Steps
- Inhabit it: Composite a MediaPipe body silhouette (see Interactive Portrait Wall) into the splat scene so a person “stands inside” the memory.
- Audio orbit: Drive the camera orbit speed from a soft ambient track.
- Particle hybrid: Mix the splats with a few thousand glowing POP particles for a magical, drifting-dust feel.
Parameter Tuning & Behavior
| Parameter | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Splat scale | Higher = softer, more painterly; Lower = sharper but more gaps show. |
| Camera speed | Slower = cinematic and photoreal; Faster = reveals the fuzzy artefacts. |
| Depth of field | Stronger = dreamy focus pull; Weaker = everything crisp. |
| Splat count | Higher = more detail and cost; Lower = faster but holes appear. |
Network Architecture
[ CAPTURE (offline) ] Phone video ──▶ Trainer (Postshot/Luma) ──▶ scene.ply
│
▼
[ LOAD ] [ Gaussian Splat Renderer .tox ] (reads .ply)
│
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[ CAMERA ] [ Camera COMP ] ◀── [ LFO / Animation COMP ] (slow orbit)
│
▼
[ GRADE ] [ Depth of Field ] ──▶ [ HSV / Lookup ] ──▶ [ OUT ]
│
▼
[ EXPORT ] [ Movie File Out TOP ](y) Return to Trending 2026 | (y) Return to Recipes & Projects | (y) Return to TouchDesigner | (y) Return to Home